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Australian unemployment held steady at 4.9 percent for a fourth straight month in June, data showed Thursday, with jobs growth firming more strongly than expected. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said there were 23,400 more people in work last month, greater than the 15,000 expected by the market, with a marked improvement in full-time work. "This increase saw full-time employment reach a total of 8,082,100 people in June," the ABS said. A total 11,455,200 Australians were in work, according to the ABS, with unemployment steady at a two-year low of 4.9 percent, a rate considered commensurate with full employment.

BEIJING – A group of eminent Chinese Communist Party elders has issued a bold call to end the country's wide-ranging restrictions on free speech, just days after the government reacted angrily to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo. In an open letter posted online, the retired officials state that although China's 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the right is constrained by a host of laws and regulations that should be scrapped. "This kind of false democracy of affirming in principle and denying in actuality is a scandal in the history of democracy," said...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska walked across Seattle's 6th Avenue, surprising and engaging a bevy of green activists picketing to protest her advocacy of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now, a few years later, she is confronting a far less civil foe -- the Tea Party Express-backed campaign that ran her down in last month's Republican Senate primary. Murkowski is running for re-election as a write-in candidate: It's an uphill climb, not only against GOP nominee Joe Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams -- but against out-of-state "extremists" who she claims "hijacked" the Republican Party. Sour grapes? No,...

None of us should burn a koran, or any book for that matter. We should all have access to every available text ever written and be able to make up our own minds about it. Sure, I understand that the pending koran burning is a political statement more than an action to rid the world of the stupid book. But it sends the wrong message. I WANT people to read this book, to truly understand its message. Taken in the context of modern events no sane person could possibly take the koran seriously. Imagine if more people had read "Mien...

(CNN) -- As the blue Chevy Cobalt crept toward the edge of the property in Chula, Georgia, a palpable nervousness wafted through the cramped car. Three men, straight out of central casting from "Deliverance," craned their necks toward our vehicle. A 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag waved 120 feet in the air. Nothing says "Welcome to the South" quite like the old battle flag. We were quite the sight for this rural stop along Interstate 75: two olive-skinned Americans on a mission; an African-American photographer; and me, a white boy from the Bible Belt. (snip) Already, the road trip has been a...

WASHINGTON — A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, the US space agency NASA said Friday, boosting hopes of eventually setting up a permanent lunar base. Preliminary data from a moon probe "indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA said. "The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," it added in a statement.

Courtesy of NME.com - Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has said that singer Steven Tyler has quit the band "as far as I can tell." Perry's comments follow those of rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, who last week (November 6) said that Aerosmith are to hold crisis talks about their future after relations with Tyler became strained. Now Perry has confirmed that Tyler is unlikely to perform with the band again.

I was just wondering, what are some of the favorite Freeper movies out there which honor American veterans? Here's a quick list of a few of my favorites. I don't think you can go wrong watching any of these today. - Saving Private Ryan - Glory - Midway - We Were Soldiers - Black Hawk Down So what are your favorites?

Just a banner now.

A day after warring neighbors Israel and Syria announced a renewal of peace talks after eight years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday that both sides know what they need to do for peace. "The Syrians know what we want and we know what they want," Olmert told Kouchner. -snip- Syrian Information Minister Muhsin Bilal told Al Jazeera television on Thursday that Damascus had received guarantees from Israel via Turkey for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights and rejected conditions put forth for concluding a peace deal. We received commitments and messages from...

I just watched "Fitna," a 17-minute film by Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom Party, which takes a hard-line stance against Muslim immigration. Released on the Internet on Thursday, "Fitna" juxtaposes verses from the Koran with images and speeches from the world of jihad. Heads cut off, bodies blown apart, gays executed, toddlers taught to denounce Jews as "apes and pigs," imams calling for global domination, protesters holding up signs reading "God Bless Hitler" and "Freedom go to Hell" -- these are just some of the powerful images from "Fitna," an Arabic word that means "ordeal." Predictably, various Muslim...

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined "Work: Option or necessity?" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba » "There...

LONDON - Female genital mutilation, commonly associated with parts of Africa and the Middle East, is becoming a growing problem in Britain despite efforts to stamp it out. London's Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, hopes a campaign beginning on Wednesday will highlight that the practice is a crime here. To make their point, police are offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to Britain's first prosecution for female genital mutilation, Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey said. In Britain, the problem mostly involves first-generation immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.

MORE than 150 police have been injured in violent clashes with protesters at a demonstration in northern Germany against next week's G8 summit, a police spokesman says. Some of the injuries were serious, the spokesman said, after updating an earlier injured figure of 100. Masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles at police as tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rostock, a port city near Heiligendamm where the Group of Eight leaders will gather for three days of talks from Wednesday. Protesters overturned and set fire to several cars, an AFP reporter said. Demonstrators from...

A powerful explosion rocked a busy commercial neighborhood in the Turkish capital Tuesday, and at least 20 people, including foreigners, were injured, CNN-Turk television reported. Television video showed medics tending to the injured and carrying people into ambulances on stretchers. The cause of the blast, outside one of the oldest shopping malls of Ankara and near bus stops, was not immediately known.

BEIRUT, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki on Monday pledged "cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to wipe out the militants fighting with the army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. After talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora at the Grand Serail (the premier's office) Monday, Zaki stressed the need to enhance "full cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to resolve what he termed Fatah al-Islam's "phenomenon." Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians live at the camp. Under a 38-year-old deal, Lebanese police and soldiers can not enter...

Mr Chavez addressed crowds in his trademark red shirt

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Demolition crews on Monday started tearing down a disputed youth center that was at the heart of recent street riots in Copenhagen. Workers wore face masks under their helmets to conceal their identities as an excavator tore into the so-called Youth House, a graffiti-sprayed brick building in the Noerrebro district of the Danish capital. A police anti-terror squad on Thursday evicted squatters from the building, triggering three nights of clashes with leftist youth that turned parts of the city into a battle zone. More than 600 people were arrested and more than 20 injured as protesters hurled...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize an African Union force to help stabilize Somalia over the next six months, setting the stage for U.N. peacekeepers to take over the long-term job of bringing peace to the Horn of Africa nation. The resolution adopted by the council urges the 53 African nations to contribute troops to the 8,000-strong force and urges other U.N. member states to provide financial support and any needed personnel, equipment and services. Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then...

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Police have said at least four people, including a gunman are dead following a shooting on the grounds of the old Naval Yard. The shooting happened shortly after 8:30 p.m. inside building 79 on South 11th Street in South Philadelphia. According to police, the gunman opened fire striking several victims. Police said the gunman apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. One victim survived the shooting and was rushed to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition. The motive of the shooting is unknown. Stay with CBS 3 and cbs3.com for more information on this breaking story.